Many years ago (let’s say 1976) I wanted a zoomy car. Corvette, Ferrari, Lamborghini, ok, that’s the ballpark I want. Fast.
Well along came these companies that would sell you a sexy top you could (allegedly) bolt on a VW chassis…I didn’t have the money. Actually I didn’t have a driver’s license, either. I did write for a brochure and they actually sent one, having no idea how old I really was.
Automotive lust knows no bounds. I just wanted to pick up my girl (who had no idea til then how into me she was) and peel out, driving about 120 mph to pick up a pizza before making out in epic fashion.
Come on you guys who bought Bradley GT, Fiberfab, Kelmark, et al. Please tell your journey. Tell me about that road not chosen. I totally salute the idea of finding a way to stretch a buck to get what you want.
IIRC it was Patrick Bedard who wrote something to the effect that when his kit car arrived, it was like being “sucker punched directly into adulthood.” I’m quoting that last bit because it’s more clever than any phrasing I could prolly muster so I must be stealing it from a deep recess of my brain.
In all seriousness if you bought in, I hope your path wasn’t as bad as that. Triumphs, failures, how did it go?
The only replica that comes to mind that I would seriously consider having is a Porsche 356 replica. It would bolt onto to a VW bug chassis. The engine, brakes and suspension would have to be upgraded to something suitable.
I own one. It’s a 1960 Beetle converted to look like a 1929 Mercedes. The engine came out of a later Beetle.
It’s a fun little car. Mechanically it’s a Beetle, so you aren’t going to peel out and the only way it is going to go 120 mph is vertically if you drop it out of an airplane. But if you are on a little 2 lane country road, it’s a lot of fun to drive. Note - it’s a beetle, so it does not have power steering and does not have power brakes, so your definition of “fun” may vary. But I really like it.
It gets a lot of looks and comments.
I also own an unmodified 74 Beetle, and even though they are basically the same car underneath, they feel like two completely different cars. In the kit car, you sit much lower and much further back, which is what gives it the completely different driving feel.
I think a lot of the Lamborghini and Ferrari clones are a bit lame, and I can see where someone would be disappointed with one of those. The Cobra clones are popular, and if you start with the right chassis and engine I can see one of those being fun.
I recall the Bradley GT, I saw one once, that was about it though. The first such things I recall were dune buggies. It was relatively easy to modify a VW that way, but it was still just a VW Beetle underneath.
I too remember the Bradley GT. Image link — https://is.gd/stXZjm. As a teenager in the 1970s I thought they looked pretty cool. But growing up in the northeast USA, I never saw one IRL. I only saw them in my Road & Track subscription — the highlight of my month, when that magazine arrived.
When I moved to the SFBA CA in 1979, then did I see fantastic cars on a daily basis!
Yeah that’s just it, isn’t it? Even if it looked identical it would still perform like a Bug. And you could upgrade components but then the savings angle isn’t as great.
At the time, my older brother pointed out that you probably wouldn’t have air conditioning. Now, you wouldn’t have ABS or air bags or…
The guy who wrote the article bought one that had really poor fit and finish, hence “allegedly.” I think he was even drilling holes that should have been there when it arrived.
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Yeah, your “Mercedes” sounds like a better application. I’d feel pretty cool in a fake Lambo until some guy wanted to race me.
Some time ago I recall seeing special conversion to make a Chrysler look like a Mercedes. Seems they sold panels that changed the lines of the car plus some badging etc.
Couple of fun videos, wherein a guy converts a Bradley GTII into a four wheeler.
The original 365 wasn’t exactly a hot rod. I think you can get pretty close with some modern upgrades to the VW Bug platform. Quite possibly even surpass the original in some ways, like handling and braking. Modern safety features and comforts like A/C and airbags are not something I’d consider a must have, or should have, on a kit car of this type.
My brother-in-law got a kit called a Concours, which if I recall, had a classic Rolls-Royce grill. The new body did not agree with the air-cooled VW engine, and the car overheated constantly. Eventually BIL only used it for events like Community Day Parades.
Then there was the sad, sad Chrysler TC by Maserati. A late 1980s-era Chrysler. The performance of a LeBaron with a not-cool-enough body by Maserati.
As a fun second car I could forego some things. As a daily driver, that would be harder.
I wonder about regulations, too. Would a high stop light still be required, for instance?
I kinda remember that. This was different.
After some googling, I think I may have found it. IIRC you didn’t have to tear everything down. Being built on a more modern car you had more amenities, safety features, etc. and since you were imitating a modern Mercedes, that was what you’d expect.
FWIW I stumbled across this as well. Someone also copied the 300 and Mercedes got tough.
I had friends that played around with kit cars and dune buggies, all based on bug chasses. The point was that VW bugs were, at the time, cheap and ubiquitous.
Nowadays, if I could find a well running Bug, I’d keep it as is.
So what we need now are kit cars that’ll transform a corolla or civic.
When we were in high school, a friend of mine worked with his father, using one of those conversion kits, to make a Beetle look like an MG-TD – it looked something like this.
A couple of years before that, when I was about 13 or 14, my father bought an old Beetle from a friend of his, with the idea that he and I could do one of those conversions. But, once we started looking more closely at the Bug, we realized that it was in pretty bad shape, and would have required a ton of repair/rehab just to get it into good enough shape to make it worth doing the conversion – my dad ended up selling it again.
Back in the 90’s, there were a couple of Lamborghinis that drove around in my area. At least they looked like Lamborghinis. Even if you don’t know what a Lamborghini is supposed to sound like, you knew something was wrong when it took off from a red light sounding like a sewing machine. Turns out you could get a Lamborghini body kit for about $3k and drop it onto a Fiero.
Just a few days ago I saw a Jeep Jalapeno. It’s a Jeep body kit, heavily modified and attached to a Fiero. Granted, it only looks like a Jeep because of the front grill, which is what caught my attention as a I saw a car sized Jeep coming up on me from behind.
I drove one of these last year. It was a very well-done conversion, it looked pretty much exactly like the real thing. What I remember from its handling was that the clutch and accelerator were both very stiff - there was no travel in them, your foot was either all the way up or all the way down. I prefer my pedals to have some travel. The shifter, on the other hand, was very loose and had a ton of play in it. Once you got the thing up to road speed, it certainly felt fast, so I get the appeal of it.
Thing is, I’ve never actually driven an original Beetle, so I don’t know if they’re all like that or what.
